Homecoming
by xShattered.Thoughtsx
Summary: Maybe she was a fool, seeing how it took her thirteen years to realize that the perfect guy she’d been searching for all through high school had been thisclose the whole time. Joe/OC. ONESHOT. Read and review!


**HOMECOMING**

**DISCLAIMER: **The author does not know the Jonas Brothers personally, nor does she have contact with them. They are under Hollywood Records, a division of Disney. This story is pure fiction; none of these events has taken place in real life.

"Jasmine, this is ridiculous. Just get the heck out of there already."

"I can't," Jasmine Shewakramani said, adjusting her dress straps. "You'd laugh at me."

"No, I won't," her best friend, Joseph Jonas, yelled through her bedroom door.

"I look stupid," Jas tried to reason. She looked in the mirror, surveying her multicolored printed dress, beach-y, soft curls (topped off with her favorite Blairband), and light, almost nonexistent makeup. She made a face at her reflection.

Apparently, her reason wasn't reason enough for Joe. "No, you don't. I'm sure you look…" He refrained from saying _beautiful_. Jas never wanted to look beautiful, but her appearance betrayed her anyway. She always looked beautiful to Joe, but that didn't have to mean that he was head-over-Ed-Hardy-sneakers in love with her.

He opted to say _normal_, which was a nice, safe thing to say. But once Jas opened the door and appeared in the doorway, all his thoughts were thrown out the window. All he could utter was, "…beautiful."

Jasmine immediately scrunched up her face. "I _knew_ it. Homecoming was a bad idea."

Joe shook his head, holding her by the arm. "What? No. All I did was say _beautiful_, Jas, and now you don't want to go to homecoming?"

"_No_, Joe, you said _I_ was beautiful. And…" Jas shrugged. "You know how I feel about that."

"I wasn't lying!"

"I know you're not. It's just…it's weird."

Joe rolled his eyes. "We are _not_ having this conversation again, Jasmine." They'd already had it a gazillion times, anyway. "Look, can we just go? The limo's waiting outside."

"You see? That's another thing," Jas began saying as they walked down the stairs of her home. "You had to rent that limo. This isn't _prom_, Joseph. When we get to homecoming, we're gonna stick out like sore thumbs. Besides, who's going to ride with us?"

"Nobody," Joe replied. They'd already gone out of the house by this point, and were making their way to the limo. "And, Jas, renting a limo isn't only for prom. People rent limos for the homecoming dance."

Jas tucked in her skirt when she entered the limo. She frowned instantly at the almost empty, all-too-spacey interior of it. It felt hollow to her. And with Joe? Yeah, things were bound to get weird tonight. It was already weird when he asked her, when she didn't even plan to go.

They were probably the only seniors at Eastern Christian High School who weren't dating anybody, let alone each other. In fact, they may be the only seventeen-year-olds left in the state of New Jersey who weren't playing the field. And, possibly, the only guy-and-girl pair of best buds who hadn't taken the unnecessary "next step." Or tried to, at least.

Joe went in after her, and no ten minutes later were they at the ECHS gym. He was right; a lot of people _did_ rent limos for the night.

Some people turned to look curiously at them. Joe Jonas, resident class clown and lead singer of an up-and-coming garage band, and his best friend, Jasmine Shewakramani, editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, coming to homecoming. Together. As…dates?

Jas looked down at her ballet flats, trying very hard to resist the urge to run back to the limo and ask to be driven all the way to New York City to tell Nick, Joe's younger brother, who was currently performing on Broadway that night, every gory detail, every piece of awkwardness, every little thing that made homecoming the worst night of her life. Nick was her go-to guy when it came to the serious (and sometimes, over-dramatized) stuff. He listened, he really did. And he had good advice.

But once she spotted her friends, whose dates were Joe's friends, she relaxed a little.

She looked up and walked as fast (and as confident-looking) as she can to them. But walking to them involved walking through the dance floor, which was full of the people who'd stared at them.

She tried to do it anyway. Joe followed after her. She walked fast (and pretty confident-looking). She smiled when she realized she was halfway there. She even waved to a few people. She grinned broadly now, feeling a weird rush of confidence and happiness, both sources of which were unknown.

And that was when she fell flat on her face due to tripping.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

"I can't believe this is happening."

It had been three hours since Jas had tripped on someone's really, _really_ long dress. She and Joe stayed at their table while their friends danced to every song the DJ played on the dance floor—whether it's a sweet, slow one or a lame fast one.

"Jasmine," Joe said. "Come on. It was one trip—it happens all the time. No one even laughed."

"_You _did."

"Well, that's different. I have the right to laugh at you whenever I want to." Joe raised his eyebrows and gave her a smug smile.

Jas stuck her tongue out at him, smiling after. "That's what I love about you, you know? You always know how to cheer me up."

"Eh, it's not so hard," Joe fake-boasted. "You're really shallow." Jas was about to elbow him when he continued, "And that's what _I_ love about _you_."

There was silence. "…_awkward_," Joe finally murmured under his breath. He cleared his throat and ran a hand through his unruly jet-black hair.

Jas sighed. "I knew I shouldn't have come."

"Stop being ridiculous, Jasmine," Joe said. He paused for a while, staring at the still-crowded dance floor.

Suddenly, he stood up and offered his hand to Jas. "Come on. We're not going to waste your time here."

"Too late," Jas mumbled. She slouched in her chair, letter her wavy locks fall freely in front of her face.

Joe bent down and took her hand. "Would you like to dance?" he asked in the most cordial, gentlemanly tone he could muster.

He'd meant to make it a serious, maybe even romantic (although this was _Jas_, his best friend since God-knows-when), question, but he found Jas laughing like he was a stand-up comedian, or something. And while he _did_ want to do stand-up comedy, that was the last thing on his mind at that moment.

Joe raised his eyebrows at a still-giggling Jas, and she saw that he really _was_ asking her to dance. Seriously.

Reluctantly, she stepped into his outstretched arms. Putting a hand on his shoulder and using the other to hold his hand, she bit her lower lip as they moved their feet awkwardly to the rhythm of the cheesy love song that was playing.

Unsure, he tried to give her a smile. He, ever the klutz, accidentally stepped on her foot in the process.

This made Jas throw her head back a little and laugh. "Okay, we're not making much progress here."

She was still giggling to herself when she noticed him looking at her. But not the usual, you're-so-weird-but-you're-my-best-friend-and-I-love-you-anyway look. It was _different_. Now, Joe's look had holy-cow-I-just-realized-I'm-head-over-Ed-Hardy-sneakers-in-love-with-you written all over it.

They stood there staring into each other's eyes, trying to analyze this Twilight Zone moment. And when the second came that they snapped back to reality, they were already past the staring game—they were already too busy locking lips to continue it.

Jas pulled away. "I can't believe it took us this long to do that." She laughed a little, unable to contain herself.

Joe cocked his head. "Why? How long _have_ you wanted to do that?"

"Probably the same length of time as your have," Jas replied, grinning at him.

"…which is about four hours," Joe continued for her.

Jasmine nodded. "Exactly."

"Don't hate me when I say this, Jasmine, but I really _do_ think you're beautiful," Joe whispered in her ear. That was when she realized how close they were standing to each other.

Jas could only smile at him while she stopped the tears from escaping her eyes—and ruining her makeup. She reached up and planted a kiss on his cheek. "Right now, that's the best thing you could say to me—unless, of course, you're gonna tell me that I can time travel. Now _that's_ way cooler."

They both laughed, and all of a sudden, it was like they weren't _just_ best friends. It seemed as though they were teetering over the edge of becoming something more. But the question was, _were_ they?

"So, um." Joe cleared his throat. "Where are we now? I mean, what exactly do we call…this?"

Jas toyed with her headband. She noted that they were still on the dance floor, just standing, looking like complete fools. And maybe she _was_ a fool, seeing how it took her thirteen years to realize that the perfect guy she'd been searching for all through high school had been _thisclose_ the whole time.

"I-I don't know, Joe, I…" she began, but then she stopped.

And suddenly, it hit her.

She was home.

(**A/N: **Something I wrote for a friend. :) The idea just came to me and I finished it in two days while on writer's block. What did you guys think of it? Please do tell through your reviews! I have more coming up, so stay tuned! –_Fiel_)


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